Improvement in wooden brushes



B. F. CARPENTER & G. W. LEE.

' Woo-denBrush.

No. 221,032. Patented Ot.28,1879.

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UNITED STATES PATENT GFFIGE BENJAMIN F. CARPENTER AND GEORGE V. LEE, OF ROSELLE, NE\V JERSEY; SAID LEE ASSIGNOR TO SAID CARPENTER.

IMPROVEMENT IN WOODEN BRUSHES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 221,032, dated October :28, 1879; application tiled September 6, 1878.

To (171'. whom it may concm'n:

Be it known that we, BENJAMIN F. GAR- PENTER and GEORGE W. LEE, of Roselle, m

the county of Union, in the State of New-Jen sey, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Wooden Brushes and Brooms, of

brushes having splints cut from an edge of ablock, and is designed as an improvement on patent of George Lee, No. 200,736, February 26, 1878. His patent employed blocks of wood large enough for a brush, and he cut saw-kerfs through this block, dividing it in sections on one side and leaving solid wood on the other side, and then the sections separated by the kerfs were out to form fibers or teeth. This was found to take much more wood than was needed to make a brush, and to be attended with much more labor and ex pense than was desirable. To correct these evils is the object ol. this improvement; and it consists in preparing our brush material in thin long strips, with the grain running across the strips, cut on the edge into splints, leaving a'solid section, by which they are made up into brooms or brushes, and leaving space between the sections for economy, ventilation, and greater elasticity; and this improvement on the patent of Lee secures also a saving of material, greater variety and facility in the manufacture, and a reduction of expense.

Our brush material is prepared by cutting from blocks of wood long thin strips A, which --are made thinner at one edge, B, to allow the splints when out from this edge room to spread out and have greater elasticity when the strips are to be united closely together. These strips may be made up into brooms or brushes by the solid edges 0 being available to form the back or shank, or to be united to some suitable backing or handle.

which case the solidsection of. the strip is alongthe center, where the handle is to be at tached.

The brushes may be made up' as seen in Fig. 1, wherein the edge 0 is set in a block, F, and a space left between the strips to give ventilation to the brush, so that it will dry out after using, and not be subject to rotting; also to allow the splints to spread out and have greater elasticity than when the strips are set closely together. This space may also be secured by making the strips with a shoulder or enlargement on the solid edgc, so that it strips are set closely together at this solid part the splints will have space to spread out.

We are aware of the patent of Alex. Thompson for making brushes from the disintegrated fibers of bass-wood, which fibers, following the grain only, are not eut-he nowhere speaks of cuttingbut they are pounded, soaked, or chemically eliminated from the cohesive substance by which they are held in growth, and this substance removed provides for a measure of elasticity in the brush. But we do not work bark of any kind, much less specifically bass-wood bark, perhaps the only bark or wood either that admits of that kind of treatment the separation of fibers as above indicatedand we do not accomplish the separation of fibers as such; but we take tough elastic wood, usually oak or hickory, and cut splints, following in a general way the grain, but not being confined to the fibers.

Our invention is not in reducing bark to fibers by relieving them of the binding ele ment by some dissolving process, but consists in cutting splints from wood, and, in this instance, making an improvement on the patent of George Lee, in cutting splints from thin strips of wood, to be worked into brooms and brushes, as above shown. Therefore,

What we claim as our invention, and desire 'to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The long thin strip or strips of wood, A, with the grain running crossw1se,hav1ng a 2 21mins portion, 13, cut into splints, leaving a solid section 0, and united to a suitable handle or section, 0, by which they can be made into a booking, F, substantially as set forth.

suitable brush or broom, substantially as speci- BENJAMIN F. CARPENTER. fled. GEORGE \V. LEE.

2. A brush composed of the long thin strips Witnesses:

A, having the grain running crosswise, and

HORACE HARRIS, having the splintered portion B and the solid A. (J. JENKINS. 

